1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to data communications and more particularly to efficient communication between transmitters and receivers.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is often necessary to move data over on-chip-interconnects, on interposer between dies, or other interconnect channels. Data movement performance is expressed in bandwidth and latency of the combined transmitter, interconnect-channel and receiver. FIG. 1 illustrates a basic interconnect structure with a transmitter 101 transmitting data 103 over the interconnect channel 105 to a receiver 107. Control information 109 controls the movement of data over the interconnect channel between the transmitter and receiver.
FIG. 2 illustrates asynchronous handshake principles that may be used to communicate over the interconnect of FIG. 1. For the transmitter to receiver handshake, when transmitter has a new data ready, the transmitter drives data 201 and asserts the Valid signal 203. When the receive side receives the data, the receive side asserts the acknowledge (Ack) signal, which is seen at the transmitter at 205. When the transmitter sees the asserted Ack signal, the transmitter deasserts Valid at 207. When the receiver sees the deasserted Valid signal, the receiver deasserts the Ack signal, which is seen by the transmitter at 209. As can be seen in FIG. 2, propagation delay resulting from the handshake can consume a significant amount of time.